A Day At The Park
by Inuzuka Notori
Summary: AU. All Major Pairings. Our heroes as young children engaging in fluff. See profile for full summary.


Disclaimer: I don't own Mai HiME.

Author's Note: This is an AU, which also entitles me to OOCness as well so watch out for that. All of the characters are living/growing up in Fuuka and don't have any powers. Also… I'd like to note that this is just fiction and people should not leave their four-year old children alone in the park! I also don't promote underage drinking! Lmao Last thing, I know that that the characters' ages aren't proportional to what they were in the series… again, it's an Alternate Universe. More NatShiz than I intended but well… once I started writing chibi Shizuru I found it very hard to stop lol.

Japanese words note:

"Sugoi" "Amazing"

Characters' Ages

Mai: 6; Natsuki: 4 (older than Nao by a month); Tate: 6; Akane: 5; Kazuya: 5; Yukino: 5; Shizuru: 4; Reito: 8; Haruka: 7; Mikoto: 5; Shiho: 5; Akira: 5; Takumi: 5; Nao: 4; Fumi: 15; Yukariko: 15; Midori: 14; Youko: 15

**A Day at the Park**

There was a small park situated in a suburb of Fuuka. Well, it wasn't an official suburb, but there was really only one main street in this town. The park itself was only one block in from the main street and next to one of two elementary schools in the town. It had a small picnic area next to the school, and then the two play areas with toys in the sand, then a large grassy area that stretched to the opposite street. Aligned with this strip was a large wading pool with a fountain in the centre.

--------------------------

At the edge of the pool at the grass there was a strawberry blonde girl dangling her feet in the water. Beside her was a boy with slightly darker hair who appeared to be a year younger than her.

"Onee-chan look!" he pointed at the fountain, "You can see a rainbow!"

The girl looked up and smiled.

"Sugoi! Let's look closer Takumi!"

The girl took her brother by the hand and pulled him into the water. Even though the water only reached the knees of their small bodies, the boy trembled and stood still shaking his head no.

"I'm fine looking at it from here… I… I don't want to stay in the water."

Seeing the stress in his tightened expression, the girl let go and allowed her brother to climb out and sit on the edge again.

This reaction did not go unnoticed by a girl at the top of a nearby tree. Even if one were looking it would be hard to see her. Even her long green hair blended in with the leaves as she sat observing the lives to the other children before continuing to colour in her book.

--------------------------

On the other side of the park near the school, the rumbling sound of plastic against concrete grew louder and louder.

"Eat my dust! Brainless!" yelled a blue-haired girl on a silver big-wheel.

"Like muffins! Big forehead!" screamed a redhead on her green big-wheel as she raced alongside the other.

A cloud of debris hovered in their wake as the two rivals skid around the corner of the school building and pedaled like mad onto the grass. However they had not expected the traction change, and not considered the fact that since it was still early in the day, the grass was still wet.

"RRAAAHH!!!" They screamed at each other as they felt the burn from their racing… despite the fact that their plastic wheels were now hardly moving them forward on the grass.

The older of the two was the first to put it together and slow down her motions to a stop. She looked ahead, then at the other girl still pedaling with all her fury and for some reason closed eyes, and then ahead again. With a smirk the child got off her bike and began running towards the sandbox.

Still yelling and pedaling, it had taken the younger a bit longer to assess the situation, but after opening her eyes she jumped up and chased after her rival.

--------------------------

Back at the pool…

Mai and Takumi were sitting by the water's edge when suddenly a slightly older boy with stunning gold eyes and jet-black hair had come up beside them. In one hand was a flower, which he held out in front of him, and in the other was the hand of a little girl with similar features, though her hair was spiked on the top and braided on each side.

"Hello Mai-san!" he said with a big smile.

She turned around and smiled back, though not quite as enthusiastically, and accepted the gift.

"Arigatou Reito-san!" she held the flower and looked behind him, "This must be your sister!"

The girl began swinging both her arms back and forth with excitement and grinning as her brother introduced her.

"Ah yes, this is Mikoto," he pointed with his free hand, and then pointed back to Mai while crouching to get at eye level with the girl, "Nee-chan, this is Mai-san, she goes to school with me."

"Ohayo!!" exclaimed the girl while leaping from Reito's hand to Mai's chest; knocking her down in the forceful hug.

Takumi had jumped back and watched while Mai tried to regain her bearing and pat Mikoto's head.

"O-ohayo Mikoto-chan…"

Reito simply laughed while rubbing the back of his head, "I knew you'd be on her good side! Nee-chan can tell right away if she likes a person or not, and it appears she likes you!"

"So it seems." Replied Mai with a smile as she sat up placing the girl on her lap.

--------------------------

In the sandbox…

Natsuki and Nao sat at opposite ends of the small square. They tried their best to avoid each other but since both wanted to play in _that exact_ sandbox each other's presence had to be endured. There still was only enough sand for one though, at least if they weren't working together.

Since in the end Natsuki had gotten to the sandbox first, she had already started building a castle. Nao watched intently with a scowl, waiting for the moment to strike.

"Done!" announced a proud blunette as she stood up and grabbed a nearby leaf to place at the top for a flag. As she stood hands on her hips and cackling, the frustrated redhead poked at a weak point in the foundation.

The building crumbled with ease, causing Natsuki's head to begin fuming. Nao had the nerve to right away start constructing her own castle.

"Hey! The villagers didn't even have time to escape!"

Somehow in kid-talk this was a valid point, so Nao briefly stopped working on her castle; just enough time for Natsuki to stomp on what was already there and grin.

"That's so cheap Kuga!"

"Only you could fall for the villagers story! We didn't even have villagers!"

Nao turned around in a pout to work on her own castle, but not before digging up half the sand with her hands and drawing a clear line from one edge of the box to another.

"Stay on your side!"

Natsuki abided with a snort and sat back down. It was now time to see whose castle would be better by the time this was all over.

--------------------------

Meanwhile at the picnic tables…

A mousy brunette and a noisy blonde sat together eating an early lunch in the shade of a large tree.

"Yukino! Why did you make me take you to the park!"

"Because Haruka-chan, you always seem stressed and are yelling… I thought it might be nice…"

The blonde sighed in frustration.

"Fine… But let's go play on the toys!"

Without hesitation, she grabbed her younger friend and dragged her away to the slide. As she was but one stair away from the top Yukino began jumping up and down pointing at the spider web toy to climb.

"Haruka-chan! I want to go on that! Let's play there!"

Attempting to keep her bold face on, Haruka only shuddered a bit at the sight before trying to urge her friend away. Little did anyone know, but one thing the girl hated was spiders, and always had a phobia of being caught and eaten by one.

"No let's go on the slide, besides wouldn't you not like being so high up?"

The other girl looked shyly at her feet before raising her head to face her friend with a fierce expression.

"But you'll protect me!"

Haruka looked down uneasily, torn between her pride and integrity she decided on one more attempt at swaying her friend's opinion. The girl slid down the slide while overenthusiastically smiling while repeatedly exclaiming how it was so wonderful.

Unfortunately is seemed wasted on the younger girl who only pouted at her friend and turned around, running towards the rope contraption.

"Ah! No Yukino you're gonna hurt yourself!"

But by then the brunette had already begun her ascent. Even though she was afraid of heights she wanted to prove that she could do it. With or without Haruka's help didn't matter now, she just wanted to prove it. She reached up to the first rope that was about as high as her head. It didn't give much room to lift herself but she tried in vain. With a light thud Yukino fell to the sand but quickly stood up and dusted herself off with a sigh.

Just as she was about to reach for it again a loud voice erupted from behind her.

"How dare you hurt Yukino you stupid spider!" Yelled Haruka as she ran past her friend and kicked one of the metal beams holding the piece together. She seemed to believe now that the spider living in the web had turned itself invisible.

"It's alright Haruka-chan…"

"No it isn't!" she replied beginning to climb the ropes with fury, "I'm gonna teach it a lesson!"

…And so began the journey to the top of the spider web.

--------------------------

At the pool…

While Reito and Mikoto were playing in the water, and Mai was on the side with Takumi, another boy came up beside them.

"Yo Tokiha!"

"Tate!"

The boy ran over and wrapped Mai in a beard hug, earning a scowl from Reito who all the while was keeping an eye on her. Although both Mai and Yuuichi had been friends for a long time, so such familiarity was to be expected, despite always calling each other by their last names.

When released from the hug Mai looked around, craning her neck to the right, then the left, to see behind her friend's back.

"Where's Shiho-chan?"

"Shh!" replied Tate while shaking his arms back and forth and looking around in a panic, "She doesn't know I'm here! I snuck out without her following me!"

"Oh really…" chuckled Mai as she pointed behind her friend.

Tate quickly jerked his head around to see a pink-haired girl towering over him.

"So you lied to me? You said you were sick Onii-chan!"

The strawberry blonde knew well enough the dynamic between these two not to get involved in their bickering. Reito on the other hand, who had set his sights on Mai since the beginning, composed himself to be the little gentleman he was and walked over to the two.

"Tate-kun, if you are done here, could you please take your leave… I believe I was playing with Mai-chan first."

Mai blushed at the fact that Reito had cared about playing with her, whereas Tate frowned in annoyance. His scowl intensified when Reito took the flower from the girl's hand and weaved it into her hair.

"What are you talking about? We've been friends for longer!"

"Maybe so, but I see you already have someone waiting for you." He pointed to s still fuming Shiho.

Tate quickly turned his head around to Mai, then Shiho, then back at Reito.

"Hey I'm not with her! I just wanted to play with Tokiha!"

"But I was playing with her first!"

While these two continued arguing Mai and Mikoto came over to watch and try to calm them down, Takumi was still sitting by himself watching the rainbow in the fountain.

--------------------------

The artist in the tree had been keeping her eyes and ears on Mai's younger brother ever since they arrived. After seeing him be left by his sister and her older friends, the girl made a swift movement and seemingly instantly appeared next to him. A light wind accompanied her and added to her mysterious demeanor. Takumi looked at her with amazement and gulped.

In the girl's mind she had actually acted on impulse and hadn't intended showing herself. Scrambling for words to say, the best thing she managed was a quiet greeting.

"…Hi"

"Hi… um… who are you?"

"I'm uhh… The Secret Ninja!" replied the girl shyly blushing and expecting the boy to not accept it. Instead he simply smiled.

"Secret Ninja? Cool!" he noticed the book and wax crayons in her hand and immediately grabbed at it, "Oh you draw?"

Startled, the girl jumped back, tightly gripping her materials making sure he wouldn't see.

"They're mine!" she yelled boldly.

Taken aback, Takumi smiled again and recoiled his hand, "…I see." before looking back at the rainbow in the water.

Suddenly a rectangular object obstructed his vision. He looked up to see the girl back at his side holding out a spare book.

"Do you… umm… want to spend time with me? Y-you looked lonely… and… yeah…" _Oh my God… What's happening to my image…_?

Unaware of her thoughts, and more concerned with the girl's act of kindness Takumi gratefully accepted the book and moved over so she could sit next to him. However, back in the girl's head she was desperately scrambling for something to say to make her less girly that she was accidently being.

"Why aren't you going in the water?"

"I uhh…" the boy stumbled for a response, but decided to give in to the truth, "I'm afraid of it."

"What!? What kind of guy are you if you're afraid of some stupid water!" explained the girl as she stood up quickly and pointed at the fountain. _There… that ought to fix things… Wait huh?... Oh no…_

She looked down to see the boy sit staring forward but now there were tears in his eyes. His breath hitched and he began going into all out bawling. The girl looked around to try and think of a way to now fix this problem and not her image one. Being resourceful as she was, she came up with a solution fairly quickly.

Takumi had been crying too much to notice at first, but stopped when he felt a misty wetness on his face. He opened his eyes to find that he was higher up than normal and the rainbow he wanted to see was right in front of his eyes. Although before he did anything with that, he looked down to see that he was sitting on one of the Secret Ninja's shoulders and had been carried to the middle of the wading pool.

"…Akira…" muttered the girl, "It's my real name… but you better not tell anyone! I'm The Secret Ninja!"

Takumi smiled brightly and nodded. He then looked in front of him at the fountain and the mixtures of light being emitted from it before extending his reach to the colours.

--------------------------

Over the next few hours everything had stayed relatively the same. Tate and Reito were still arguing over whom Mai should be playing with, while the girl in question was busy taking care of Mikoto. Natsuki and Nao were breaking each other's sand castles every chance that they got. Haruka was standing proudly at the top of the spider web having conquered her fear; while Yukino was one rope-step beneath her holding on for dear life. Although that wasn't because of her fear of heights but because Haruka insisted on victory dancing so the nearby ropes bounced up and down.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a limousine was driving slowly though the narrow streets. A small girl and her parents sat in the car looking at the unfamiliar area.

"Do you want to go play?" asked the mother.

The girl hugged her stuffed animal tightly and shook her head no while staring at the ground.

"Aww but look," said the father as he pointed out the window, "All the other kids are playing in the park."

She shook her head again.

"Please sweety? Mommy and Daddy have to go to their meeting soon, you're old enough to be in the park by yourself for a bit right?"

A solemn expression loomed on the girl's face as she raised her head up a bit to look out the window at the park. The car stopped moving and was now ready to let her out but she didn't move. All eyes were staring at her.

From the children's point of view, they had all turned their attention from whatever they were doing to the fancy car. It was rare that someone who owned one of these would be in their town. Though they were fairly well off with every family having their own house, they weren't from old money either. Whoever this person could be was sure to interest them.

--------------------------

Putting their differences away for the moment, Reito and Tate were at each of Mai's sides. Tate took her left hand and Reito took the right, while in the boys' other hands was his respective little sister (or in Tate's case "obsessive younger friend"). They walked together to the middle of the park along with Takumi and Akira, who were also hand in hand. The green-haired girl had learned rather quickly how accident prone the boy was and made it her goal to make sure he didn't trip over his own feet more than twice in one day… At least that's what she kept telling herself.

Haruka and Yukino managed to get down from the spider web toy and ran towards the middle also to meet up with their schoolmates. Although the brunette, who was more excited, waved at her friends who she simply hadn't noticed earlier. She had been rather preoccupied.

While these two groups had been getting reacquainted, both Nao and Natsuki were slowly getting up observing the other to make sure they didn't cross the line again. In both of their minds this was the perfect distraction to get in another hit on the other's castle. They backed away from it slowly until agreeing to turn around at the same time. Surprisingly this happened without any mishaps involving a not-so-conveniently-placed tree root but of course it became a race to see who could make it to the group first.

Huffing with their hands on their knees, the rivals stood with the others and looked up as the car door opened.

"Who is it?" they all muttered in unison.

--------------------------

The little girl cautiously stepped out of the vehicle avoiding the ogles she was getting. She turned to her parents and pleaded with her eyes to not leave her. However being the busy managers that they were, she was ignored and verbally coaxed to stay in the park and be good for a few hours.

Her father's hand reached out and patted her head.

"Don't worry. If you run into any trouble you have Kiyohime to protect you right?" he said pointing at the purple snake in her arms.

The girl smiled weakly as the man retracted his hand but was startled again by the loud slamming of the car door and screech of wheels. She eyed the limo driving away with her parents before taking a deep breath. Preparing herself, she turned around to face the group that was still staring at her.

She kept her head down trying to hide her eyes as they approached her, even though they were wearing friendly smiles it was still frightening. Gulping down her fears as one solid stone, the girl looked up and was about to risk her introduction to these strangers.

"…Ara… My name is-" she started, but was cut off by Nao.

"Where are you from?"

"Ah?"

"You're accent," said the red-haired girl while chuckling, "It sounds funny."

"…Oh…"

The girl looked down again as the others laughed along, although Mikoto running away after a butterfly had distracted Mai and her close friends.

Yukino then hugged Haruka's arm tightly and whispered something in her ear. The blonde gave her an odd look before turning back to the new girl.

"Hey," she said loudly, "Look at me for a sec."

Though the older girl's loud voice crumpled her spirits even more, the girl in question looked up shyly, her crimson eyes shining through thin sandy tresses.

"Whoa," said Haruka as she took a step back, "Never mind the accent! Look at her eyes! Who has red eyes?"

The girl's breath hitched and tears began to form behind the pools that had gotten all the attention she hadn't wanted.

"What are you guy's so afraid of?" came the voice of the only girl who hadn't spoken yet, "She's not a monster or anything…"

Natsuki walked forward and reached out to the fragile child, although this unfortunately pushed her over the edge. Having blocked out almost everything ever since Haruka stepped back, she only managed to hear the word "monster" and swatted the other girl's hand away. While the blunette jumped back to dodge the new girl ran away towards the cemented backyard of the school and Nao interjected again.

"Maybe she is Kuga, she did just try to hit you!"

Natsuki furrowed her brow and clenched her first before turning around to the group.

"It's because you guys were jerks!" she kicked up dirt at them, "Now she's run away! Obviously she's new here what if she gets lost?!"

Not bothering to hear any sarcastic answers to her rhetorical question, Natsuki ran off.

--------------------------

On the other side of the park, two other groups of newcomers were arriving. At one end of the field was a brash redhead on a shining red bike accompanied by brunette of similar age and the other much younger.

"Slow down Midori-chan…" heaved the older of the two followers, "Akane-chan is still on a tricycle, and not to mention she's a lot smaller so she can't move as quickly."

"Sorry Youko. It's just that I uhh… told someone I'd meet them here about an hour ago and it was very important."

"Was Midori-chan purchasing illegal substances again?" came a small yet serious voice from behind.

Youko stared blankly forward. _I should have known she was buying stuff…_

Midori turned around and crouched to be at face-level with Akane.

"No no, it isn't illegal! It's just hard for me to get it because I'm too young, I'm only your age you know!" she said while ruffling the girl's hair.

Being gullible as a five-year-old was Akane just giggled while Youko rolled her eyes.

"Stop corrupting the minds of small children. Her parents said take her to the park to play, not teach her about sneaking beer for you... Not to mention that even at your _real_ age you're too young…"

"Are you saying I'm a bad babysitter?"

"Not exactly… just that her parents are paying me and not you to watch her for a reason."

Midori rolled her eyes and went to lock their bikes. Youko took Akane's hand in her own and followed close behind. They were about to go over to the toys when another trio crossed their path.

Until the loud group at the other end of the green field, this group was a lot more calm and refined. They consisted of two girls with relatively short hair, one blonde and one pink. In the middle held at each hand was a boy exactly Akane's age though oddly enough he had a dark gray hair colour.

"Oi! Yukariko! Fumi!"

Midori yelled as she ran towards the other teens that were also her schoolmates. Despite how she appeared on the outside, the impetuous girl was actually quite intelligent when it came to book smarts and ended up skipping ahead one grade. It was when she heard she would be entering high school that she decided to make friends with some of the older girls in hopes that she would be in the same class.

Upon being greeted the two girls waved back while the boy let go of their hands and ran ahead to Akane who was shyly hiding behind Youko's legs. Sensing this the boy slowed and simply craned his neck around to see her.

"Hello Akane-chan!" he said with a bright smile.

"H-hello Kazu-kun…" she replied, while blushing hard.

"Akane-chan, why don't you and Kazuya go play Frisbee in the grass?" suggested Midori as she pulled out the plastic disc and handed it to the boy.

"Yeah let's play with this!"

Kazu jumped up and down repeatedly with glee while holding the Frisbee in front of his face. Once he had calmed down he extended his hand in a gentlemanly fashion and waited for the shy girl to accept it. She did with hesitation but immediately opened up when their eyes locked. Seeing the boy's smile calmed her as he led the way away from their respective caregivers and began tossing the disc back and forth.

That was until…

--------------------------

"Mikoto no!" yelled Reito as he watched his younger sister jump into the air in an attempt to catch the Frisbee with her mouth. However she had still not practiced this trick enough and ended up getting smacked in the head from Akane's throw. The nekogirl fell to the ground with spirals in her eyes as the rest circled around her.

"I'm so sorry Mikoto! I didn't see you! It's my fault!" stammered Akane while both Reito and Kazu tried to calm her.

"Don't worry Akane-chan, my sister does this all the time… It's her own fault when we keep telling her that trick won't work. Either way, she'll be better again in no time."

And he was right. Within seconds the girl had sat up and rubbed her eyes as if she had just been sleeping for a while.

It had taken a moment for the supervisors to realize what was happening. They were too busy talking about what they thought high school would be like until Mai's voice caught their attention.

"Hey Midori-chan you're here too?"

Said girl turned around to see Mai running towards her and picked her up and swinging her in the air for a minute before putting her back down.

"Ah so there's my favourite kid!"

"Hey! I thought I was your favourite!" yelled Tate as he came up next to Mai.

"Well… I guess that means you're both my favourite then right?" Midori replied while ruffling his caramel hair and letting the two explain the situation.

"Oh right!" started Mai as she cleared her throat, "Basically Mikoto thought it would be fun to catch a Frisbee with her mouth and she ended up getting hit in the head with it, but she's alright now!"

Fumi and Yukariko just sighed. They had usually been the ones in charge of watching the Minagi siblings and knew all too well how the younger one had tried this in the past.

--------------------------

Over at the picnic area…

Nao, Haruka, and Yukino sat at the table and thought about their actions.

"…Do you think we were too harsh?" asked the brunette ash she fixed her glasses.

"No way!" replied Haruka slamming her fist on the table.

"But… I didn't mean for you to say such things Haruka-chan… I only told you I noticed it because I thought it was different…"

The girl raised an eyebrow.

"Look… I don't really care about the new girl either way but now Kuga's missing too," said Nao with a shrug.

"Are you worried?" asked the other pair simultaneously.

"Eh?! No! I'm just saying that she was the only person I could race with."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

This continued on for a while before all three sighed and thought of something to do to make up for their judgmental behaviour.

"I know! Let's cook a big meal for all of us! We can ask Mai-chan for help too, since we all live around here we can quickly run home and get supplies and meet back in about half an hour."

Both Haruka and Nao eyed Yukino suspiciously before nodding in agreement. With the plan settled the blonde and brunette got up and started running towards Mai and the teenagers.

"Nao? Why aren't you coming?"

"…Someone needs to guard the table, so I guess it'll _have_ to be me."

Grinning, the two nodded again and left.

"She's _so_ waiting for Kuga," they whispered together.

--------------------------

Meanwhile on the school property, Natsuki was again out of breath and frantically running around trying to find the new girl. It had taken a good twenty minutes but eventually she passed a set of cement stairs that led to a doorway into the building. Sitting there on the edge was the girl Natsuki was looking for, although with her face buried in her knees all the blunette could see was a shaking chestnut head.

She looked sadly as she heard the sobbing of the other girl and took a few steps forward. She didn't want to startle by speaking just yet so she made sure that she placed her foot on a twig. As it snapped those crimson eyes looked up into emerald ones.

Learning some basic body language from her dog, Natsuki figured the simplest way to make her seem less threatening would be to make herself smaller. She crouched down and started to walk forward again.

The other girl, scared, held up her stuffed snake in front of her face and made it hiss using her own voice.

Natsuki giggled a bit to herself, but kept her eyes on the girl's.

"My name is Natsuki. What's yours?"

Seeing that this girl truly meant no harm, she moved aside, making room on the step.

"Shizuru…"

Natsuki smiled and sat next to her on the concrete.

"That's a nice name! Mind if I call you Shizu-chan?"

The girl's eyes widened. Not even her parents had given her such a name and yet this stranger had already felt familiar enough. For the first time that day she smiled and nodded.

"So Shizu-chan, where _do_ you come from? We haven't seen you around here before."

"I'm from Kyoto… Can't you tell?"

Natsuki stared at the ground while fidgeting with her feet.

"I uhh… Don't really go to school that much so I'm not familiar with other dialects…"

And with this girl, it was the first time Shizuru laughed for real.

"That's not good! You should always go to school!"

"Hey don't laugh at me! I just have better things to do…"

"Such as?"

"Play with Duran, he's my dog! Do you have any pets?"

The girl nodded furiously with a bright smile and picked up her snake.

"Kiyohime is my pet!"

Natsuki raised an eyebrow at the girl and giggled again.

"You're pretty interesting! What else do you like?"

"Hmm… Tea."

"Tea? The only person I know who drinks tea is my obaa-chan…"

Shizuru pouted.

"What? It's good for you!"

"Ah like this?" Natsuki reached through her pockets and found two small packets of mayonnaise, "I never go anywhere without my trusty mayo packets!"

"What's mayo?" asked Shizuru while poking at one.

Natsuki froze. This poor lost soul had never heard of mayonnaise before and the girl saw it as her duty to convert her to one of those who were addicted. Which in this entire town consisted solely of Natsuki herself. She handed Shizuru one of the mayo packets and showed her how to tear off the corner of the wrapper and then how to gulp down the whole thing.

Innocently believing that this was the way normal people ate mayo, Shizuru emptied the entire package onto her tongue at once. In an instant her face turned an unnatural shade of green and only after quite a bit of mental preparation was she able to swallow it.

"…It… Was interesting…"

Natsuki tried not to laugh at the girl's reaction but had a hard time of it.

"It's okay, I think I'm the only one who eats it like that actually… but oh well it was worth a try."

She looked ahead and saw the sun start to set. The blunette stood up and skipped a few steps forward before turning around.

"What do you say we go back and play?"

Shizuru stirred, she didn't want to see the other children.

"It's okay," Natsuki held out her hand and struck a proud pose, "I'll protect you!"

The four-year-old sitting on the steps blushed hard and looked shyly at the girl in front of her. She hesitantly looked into those emerald eyes before extended her own hand in acceptance.

Natsuki gave Shizuru a toothy smile and led the way back to the park.

--------------------------

Yukino and Haruka arrived in the grassy area and greeted the older girls. Yukariko and Fumi had also often been their babysitter as well. They took a brief moment to explain their plan and formulate who would bring what. Although during the explanation of why they were doing this, the pair chose to leave out their previous actions and simply call it a "back to school party." From there they formed different groups each led by one of the teenagers.

Midori took Mai, Tate, Shiho, Takumi and Akira to Mai's house to get the portable barbeque and any dishes they needed. Youko took Reito, Mikoto and Akane to the Minagi's house to get the deserts. Yukariko took Haruka and Yukino to the latter's home to get ingredients for the main course. Kazuya pulled on Fumi's pant leg and motioned for her to lean over. He whispered something in her ear and she nodded with a smile. Those two then went back to the boy's house to pick up something special.

--------------------------

Hand in hand, Natsuki and Shizuru went back to the park and were surprised to see it mostly empty. The blunette looked over at a certain redhead asleep on the wooden picnic table.

"Hey Nao where'd everybody go?"

There was no response except for a snore.

"Bah whatever let's go, what do you want to play on?"

The chestnut haired girl crossed her arms over her snake and looked up in thought.

"I suppose I'd like that." She said pointing at the swings.

Natsuki nodded and walked through the sand to the swings. However these were not the "big kid" swings that were lower to the ground. Instead they were meant for children their size yet raised up barely out of reach. The two girls tilted their heads to the side, confused with the contraption.

"…How do we get on?" asked Shizuru.

"Hmm… Well when I'm here with my mom usually she helps me on so…"

Before realizing what was going on, Natsuki took one of Shizuru's hands and knelt down to sturdy herself. She offered her knee to her new friend, who was now blushing slightly.

"Here, you can reach now."

The girl's ruby eyes watered a bit in joy but it was shaken out of her head by her excited nodding. Using Natsuki's leg as a step, Shizuru successfully climbed into the seat of the swing, also aided by the girl using her hands to lift her other foot.

The blunette took a step back and looked the swing up and down before grinning widely with pride.

"Wait, now how are you going to get on?"

"Like this!"

Natsuki took a few steps back and furrowed her brows before running as fast as she could at the swing, though at an angle. She leapt forward and grabbed hold of the bottom of the seat, guiding it to swing up next to one of the support beams. At the right moment, the girl let go of the swing and held onto the metal while looking down. She was now high enough to simply change her direction and climb down the chains into the seat next to her friend.

"…Wow." Was all that Shizuru could say, "You're really acrobatic."

The blunette flashed another bright grin while rubbing the back of her head and giving a thumbs-up.

"It wasn't that big of a deal… Let's swing!"

Natsuki was about to start shifting her weight when a quiet voice from beside caught her attention.

"Why… Why do you bother to play with me?" asked Shizuru.

"Because I like you!"

_What?_

"We're friends aren't we?"

Speechless, the honey-haired girl merely smiled, thinking over the word "friend."

"Come on," said Natsuki, breaking her train of thought by reaching over to the chain of Shizuru's swing, "It's fun!"

In a gentle pull and release, the girl started swinging her friend back and forth before concentrating on her own.

The pair played like this for the next few minutes before Nao came by.

"Yo Kuga! They're gonna be back soon so don't make yourself sick before we even eat," she paused, noticing her oddly caring tone, "…I don't want you puking on me!"

The two girls slowly stopped swinging.

"What do you mean 'they'? But now that you mention it yeah where is everyone?"

"They went to go get food. We're all having a barbeque thing."

"I suppose I should take my leave then…" muttered Shizuru as she got down from the swing, with Natsuki's help of course.

"You better not go!" shouted the redhead; "They're doing it for you!"

"…What?" asked Natsuki and Shizuru in unison.

"Yeah… umm… We wanted to say sorry for being umm…"

"Downright mean?" interjected Natsuki.

"Well… yeah…" admitted Nao while looking sheepishly at the ground.

"It's alright." Replied Shizuru though still behind Natsuki, peeking over her shoulder.

Just as those three settled themselves, the rest of the party had returned.

--------------------------

"Akane-chan!" yelled out the gray-haired boy as he ran towards the shy girl with a golden creature in his arms.

Akane got the courage to let go of Youko's hand and walk forward to meet him halfway.

"Look! It's my new cat I thought you'd want to play with him with me!" he held up the purring critter that was so cute the girl's eyes began to sparkle. Before Kazuya could speak Akane grabbed the cat and hugged it tightly, snuggling it close.

"His name is Harry!" said the boy while smiling and rubbing the back of his head.

"He's adorable!"

"Hey look who's back!" shouted the boisterous redheaded teen pulling an empty wagon behind her.

Youko simply raised and eyebrow at her friend.

"Midori… where are the kids and the stuff?"

"Huh?" Midori turned around and started in shock at the empty space, "EEEH!! Where'd they go!?"

"Mai-chan… You shouldn't play with matches…" said a mousy brunette as she placed a container of meat on the table.

"What the!? Mai put those down!" shouted Midori as she ran over to where Mai was, already setting up with the barbeque matchbox in hand. Just as she was about to light the whole thing on fire, the box was snatched from her.

"Geez! You little pyro! What have I told you about that?"

Mai sighed in defeat and grumbled from memory.

"Don't play with matches when there are witnesses…"

Everyone stared at the girl, and then glared at Midori who was laughing hesitantly in an attempt to cover up the quality of her teaching skills.

"Well… she wouldn't take no for an answer when I tried any other way, so I had to strike a deal."

The group sighed and then gathered at the table. Mikoto and Shiho were piling the food high at one end while Reito was placing the plates in even spacing. Though only children, both Mai and Yukino had extremely honed culinary skills and were in charge of cooking. Meanwhile Haruka and Tate watched their respective best friends, seemingly making mental notes on how to cook when in reality it was all going over their heads. Akira and Takumi were sitting at the end of the table, still colouring and waiting for food while Akane and Kazuya were in the grass nearby playing with Harry.

The teens were really just there to supervise. They had learned from their various experiences that these kids really liked to help and if they tried to it would hurt their pride. As long as they kept watch and made sure Mai didn't set anyone aflame they didn't see the harm it leaving them be.

--------------------------

"It's ready!" exclaimed Mai and Yukino simultaneously, calling the rest of the group to the table.

There were still three empty seats, but their occupants were approaching. Leading the way was Nao followed by Natsuki pulling Shizuru in tow.

"All here!" shouted Nao as she confidently took a seat next to the head of the table.

Natsuki felt her hand tighten and looked at her friend who was still very nervous.

"It's okay." She said sitting at the table and moving over giving Shizuru some space.

The blunette pointed around the table and introduced all of her schoolmates and the four older girls. Although instead of making her friend formally address them all, which is what Shizuru was expecting, Natsuki casually pointed to her side.

"…And all of you that's Shizu-chan. Be nice to her!"

It was then that a major switch occurred in the small child. Seeing all of the smiles of the rest of the group, even the ones who had been mean before, filled her with confidence. She draped her arms over Natsuki's shoulders and confidently pulled her into a hug.

"But only she can call me Shizu-chan!"

"Eh?"

"And in return I shall be the only on to call you Natsu-chan!"

The table giggled and laughed at the conclusion this day had brought. The sun was almost down when they had finished and started leaving. The first to leave was Kazuya, but since Akane couldn't bring herself to say goodbye to Harry just yet, Fumi offered to take her home for Youko. It worked out for the best since she then ended up having to take Tate and Shiho home; despite the young girl's protest and wanting to be alone with the boy.

Next to be picked up, or well, the only one to be actually picked up by her parents was Shizuru. Natsuki walked the girl to her car.

"I'll see you at school right?"

"Yes. I look forward to it," replied Shizuru.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, neither really wanting to leave. It ended when the crimson-eyed girl leaned in and kissed Natsuki on the cheek. The blunette turned a new shade of red and started forward like a zombie as her friend got into the vehicle. The only motion she could make while in this stupor was waving goodbye.

--------------------------

While in the car…

"I see you made a good friend didn't you?" asked the older woman.

Her daughter sat with her knees on the seat looking out the window. She turned around and flashed a bright smile at her parents.

"Yes! I want to marry her!"

The adults laughed and Shizuru's father patted her head.

"Heehee kids say the funniest things don't they?"

"Indeed they do."

The girl pouted.

"What? I do!"

--------------------------

Though still somewhat stunned, Natsuki was snapped out of it by a pat on her back. She looked over her shoulder at a grinning Nao.

"What?"

"New friend?"

"Yeah, so? Jealous?"

The girl walked away shrugging.

"You got me there, I can't have someone taking you away from me anyway."

"Taking me away from you?" asked the blunette with a raised eyebrow.

"As my racer! Now get on your bike Kuga!"

Said girl clenched her fist and hopped on her silver big wheel. Together they began a countdown.

"Three…"

"Two…"

And Nao took off.

"One… HEY!" and Natsuki pedaled after her.

--------------------------

Back at the picnic area, Haruka and Yukino were the next to leave along with Yukariko.

"See ya at school… _Sister_!" called Midori.

The older blonde turned around, fuming.

"Stop calling me that!"

The girl nonchalantly waved her hand.

"Oh you know it's true! You're the best suited for being a nun out of all of us."

The girl snorted and turned around taking the two children with her, leaving Midori behind with the Minagi and Tokiha siblings, along with Akira.

"Okay let's head home." Said the teen as she started loading most of the barbeque materials into the wagon.

"Akira-kun, where are your parents?"

The green-haired girl pulled up a violet mask out from beneath her shirt and covered half of her face with it.

"I don't need my parents to come pick me up!"

"…They don't know you left do they?" asked the boy while chuckling.

"They'd be proud to know I was able to get out unseen! I'm the secret ninja you know!"

"Yes yes Akira-kun. I shall see you at school then."

The girl stopped and pondered.

"Fine! I shall reveal myself to you at school, but only to you so meet at," she whispered the destination, "It'll be our secret hiding place."

Takumi smiled and nodded. In the blink of an eye the girl vanished in a swirl of wind. He looked around and was surprised that he really did not sense any trace of her. _She's good…_

A flapping noise caught his attention and he saw a paper held underneath the weight of a plate, but his sister was the first to grab it. Mai held up the paper and looked at the coloured picture.

"Takumi, what is this?"

He took the paper, a smile forming on his face. On it was a rough colouring drawn by Akira of earlier in the day when she helped him see the rainbow in the fountain. There really were no words to describe the drawing further.

"It's… important. That's what it is." He replied with a nod.

"Alright kiddies let's go home!" called Midori who was already a bit ahead along with Reito and Mikoto.

Mai nodded and took her brother's hand. After a long and exciting day, the last of the children had gotten home and settled down to sleep.

"Let's do this again!"

--------------------------

Done my fluffy oneshot. Sorry it may be a bit rushed at the end… but by the time I got to 6000ish words I figured I should wrap it up. Hope you enjoyed it!

Sorry there's no new chapter of my main fic this week... Got overloaded with school.

TBC? Perhaps...


End file.
